A former police officer from Wells who had suffered a stroke has been cleared of allegations of shoplifting and bilking after magistrates found that he had not intended to make off without paying for the goods.

James Thomas Whitehead said that he suffered lapses in his memory and was often forgetful, disorganised and confused since having the stroke in May 2015.

On two occasions, he was allegedly caught walking out of the Waitrose store in Wells with his trolley loaded with groceries without making any attempt to pay.

And on two other occasions, he was said to have put fuel into his car at a filling station in Willsbridge and drove off without making payment.

James Thomas Whitehead was accused of stealing from the Waitrose supermarket in Wells, pictured in 2013 (Image: Northcliffe Media)

Somerset Magistrates, sitting at Yeovil, were told that on one occasion the defendant was captured on CCTV and appeared to be covering the items in his trolley with a large blue Ikea bag, as if to hide what he was doing.

However, the former police officer and school caretaker said that he had been unable to work since being taken ill, and suffered greatly from post-stroke fatigue.

Giving evidence on oath, he said: "I get very irritable and forgetful, and some days I just go to bed because I am so tried and cannot achieve what I want to do," he said.

"I am a different person than I was before the stroke, but I would not have deliberately walked out of a store without paying, and my intent was not to steal."

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Whitehead, 53, of Upper Milton, pleaded not guilty to a charge that on December 26, 2016 at Willsbridge, knowing that payment on the spot for unleaded petrol was required, he dishonestly made off without having paid with intent to avoid payment of £21.96.

He also denied a similar offence at Willsbridge on February 22 this year involving an amount of unleaded petrol worth £38.09.

He also pleaded not guilty to stealing groceries valued at £70 from Waitrose in Wells on March 10 and the theft of groceries worth £209.97 from the same store 12 days later.

Defending solicitor Jeffrey Bannister said that the case had initially been adjourned for the police to consider giving Whitehead a conditional caution, but a decision was made to continue with the prosecution.

Whitehead also pleaded not guilty to bilking from a garage in Willsbridge (Image: Google Maps)

Prosecutor Ben Winzar said that said that on the two occasions involving the theft of fuel Whitehead drove to the Snax 24 service station in Bath Road, Willsbridge, and went to the same pump and fuelled his car, and both times he left without paying.

On March 10 the manager at Waitrose in Wells was alerted by someone who had seen Whitehead leave the store with goods in his trolley which had not been paid for.

"He checked the CCTV which confirmed the defendant had not been to the till to pay for the goods, and it then showed him walk to his car where he lingered and then started putting items into the boot before driving out of the car park," he said.

"On March 22 the defendant went back to the same store and was monitored for around 25 minutes and seemed to be aware he was being watched.

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"He continued to fill his trolley with goods and walked past two staffed tills and then into the café. before exiting via the café doors rather than the main entrance.

"He was stopped by staff as he left, and when he saw them approaching he immediately abandoned his trolley and walked back into the store where he said he had suffered a stroke and had forgotten to pay."

Mr Bannister said that a psychiatric report requested by the court had reinforced his client's own GP’'s findings that Whitehead suffered from a "mild cognitive deficit affecting executive function" as a result of the stroke.

He said: "There are indications that problems can arise with other cognitive skills, meaning that there are times when he has difficulties and has a significant rigidity of thinking.

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"He was innocently walking into a store and aware of people watching him, he then lost concentration and demonstrated that he was acting haphazardly and not behaving rationally.

"He became confused and disorganized and then left the store without paying for these items, and has acted in a way that is very out of character and he cannot recall doing these things."

The magistrates found Whitehead not guilty of all the allegations against him and said: "Combined with medical evidence, we find that you did not act dishonestly and had no intention of permanently depriving Waitrose and the filling station of the goods."

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